McDowell Mountain Profile: Gelatinous Groove

So my girl and I will be spending next Friday, April 27th – all day, all night – at the McDowell Mountain Music Festival. From noon to 2pm, Sierra Nevada (the sponsor) is throwing a little kick off happy hour with $2 beers. It’s the perfect opportunity to get soused in the 85 degree heat before the first note is even played. Look out!

The music kicks off at 1:30, and goes through 11pm. The lineup for the day is:

Gelatinous Groove (1:30-2:15)
2 Tone Lizard Kings (2:30-3:15)
Tea Leaf Green (3:45-4:45)
Grace Potter & the Nocturnals (5:15-6:30)
The Neville Brothers (7:00-8:30)
Bob Weir & Ratdog (9:00-11:00)

I thought I’d spend the next week or so profiling each band in Friday’s lineup. So we start tonight with the festival opener, local band Gelatinous Groove.

They came together in early 2004 in my former home of Tempe, where I spent six years living dangerously close to ASU hang-out Mill Avenue and great local bar Casey Moore’s. The boys in GG lay down the laid back jam-bandish vibe. Usually these types of bands thrive in the live environment, and I haven’t seen them yet, so it’s hard to judge them from the three tunes available on their MySpace page. I’ll give you some better perspective after the show next week.

The band is made up Mike Roberts (keys, vox), Matt Vestal (bass), Steve Allen (alive and well! on guitar and bass), Mike Hatley (guitar), and the lead vocalist drummer Cory Yardley. And you can’t forget Richard the head. They rave about Richard on their MySpace page, and have a song all about him. Richard apparently goes everywhere with them. I’ll make sure to get an in depth interview at the show. You can see Richard representin’ in the pic above.

Gelatinous Groove: Big D and the Darwin Theory (mp3)

Check out their MySpace here.

Join me at the McDowell Mountain Music Festival in Scottsdale, AZ.